Ohio State's Aaron Craft scrambles with Washington's Desmond Simmons sfor a loose ball during last year's game with the Huskies. / AP Photo

Written by

Mark Snyder

Detroit Free Press

As Michigan winds down its Big Ten season, coach John Beilein has a habit of pointing out players he’s glad he won’t have to face again.

After tonight, U-M’s lone Big Ten regular-season meeting of the season against No. 22 Ohio State, he might be able to say good-bye to a four-year pain in his side, OSU point guard Aaron Craft.

The Big Ten player of the week despite averaging only 12 points in two wins, Craft’s all-around game pushes the Buckeyes.

While he started his first few years as a defensive stopper and then expanded his offensive skills, he remains a major defensive presence, averaging 2.5 steals this season.

Last week he had nine steals, and his big scoring game with 17 points helped Ohio State upset Iowa in Iowa City.

With the Wolverines already struggling offensively in their past two road games, at Indiana on Feb. 2 and at Iowa on Saturday, facing the defensive-minded Buckeyes tonight at Value City Arena won’t help.

The first problem preparing for this game was the Wolverines have no one on their roster who can play the pesky defender in practice.

“(Assistant coach) LaVall Jordan does a pretty good imitation of him,” Beilein said Monday. “(Craft has) got that rare ability to be able to see that ball in slow motion and be able to grab it from you. He averages three steals a game again.

“The one thing you had before was he and Shannon Scott weren’t in together a lot. Now they’re both in together, and (Scott’s) stealing it almost two times a game.”

Considering what Indiana did with point guard Yogi Ferrell and Iowa with bigger guard Devyn Marble shutting down Nik Stauskas, Craft is the latest challenger.

Despite giving up 3 inches to the 6-foot-6 Stauskas, Craft is adaptable and welcomes the challenge.

“He’s going to guard, irregardless of who we put him on,” coach Thad Matta said during Monday’s Big Ten telelconference. “He’s going to do what he does. He’s got a great understanding of moving him around on the ball, off the ballm and he’s so cerebral that he gets it.”

Craft’s biggest weakness might be his desire.

“During the tough times we went through, he took a lot of onus and put it on himself,” Matta said. “I had to sit him down and say, look, you can’t carry the weight of the world on your shoulders — you have to relax and play basketball.”

But as the Buckeyes have improved over the past few weeks, winning four of five, they’ve done it defensively, stifling opponents from the three-point line. Foes have hit five or fewer in the four OSU wins.

Beilein’s biggest concern might be that Craft is not alone.

“When they go to Lenzelle Smith or Shannon Scott ... those other guys are pretty good, too,” Beilein said.